When heroes fall.
People watch with intrigue, others cry in outrage at the impossible, and some revel in seeing the hero’s humanity. What people tend to forget is each and every individual has the capacity for great evil as well as astounding greatness. Kindness, compassion, hate, envy, and more all share the same space. In our Western mindset, we tend to separate the opposites. Day and night do not happen at the same time. Up or down but not both. This separation is not possible when it comes to people’s behavior, capacity, and emotions.
Humans are not cosmic forces. We are not good OR evil. Those who are “good” have to fight to be that way. Fight against the desire to get revenge. Internally they struggle with the desire to be petty when someone stabs at their character. Hold their tongues when they are angry because they know nothing said in anger will get them what they want. Those very same people have the capacity for both deep love as well as seething hate. In fact, I argue that the individual feels both, but decides which to display.
In recent news, a person I have positive memories about was accused of sexual abuse in years past. The investigation began, and of course, I was sad to hear of the accusation. There are a few obvious outcomes, he did cross a line, she is making it up, or a misinterpretation of intent leading to feelings of crossing a line. With him being in a position of authority, the accusation has negative professional effects.
The most disheartening part was seeing many say “That is impossible” or “Obviously a lie!”. My gut went “why? What about that seems impossible?” Does he not have sexual urges? Sure, I don’t want to think about that when it comes to him, but he is HUMAN. He’s not in a bubble. Maybe he did love his job. He inspired so many to do great things or be a better person. That very same person could have also exploited another. At least a handful of people mentioned feeling demeaned by him. Since he is simply a person, I can see each scenario play out.
To emphasize, this is not a gender thing. The hero I have watched fall happens to be male, but this is a human failing, not a male thing. Back to the point, the outcry of the accusation being a lie or an act for attention has brought a certain level of disappointment for myself. If your hero is great, then remind them what they have meant to yourself. However, do not for one moment believe they are incapable of doing horrible things. Your hero is not necessarily amazing to another individual.
Perhaps that is why I liked the Biblical “heroes”. Many will disagree with this point, but I liked hearing about these flawed people. It meant that I could still be considered great despite my imperfections, and not to beat myself up for mistakes. Moses? He lashed out in anger more than once. Elijah had great faith and felt despair. Human was human and that did not mean God gave up on them.
That leads me to watching social reaction to what many consider to be a wonderful person. They put him on a pedestal and take it as a personal slight that he might not live up to THEIR expectations. In no uncertain terms I will emphasize that it was their held expectations because he is clearly capable of doing these terrible things.
My wrap up is this, reconsider your heroes. What pedestal do you put them on? What expectations do you have of them? What will you do if truth reveals they do not meet those expectations? Better yet, have you reached out to let them know how much they mean(t) to you? As a human I can say that last bit is encouraging ;)
Despite the seriousness, here's my wonderful dog reminding me to take joy in the world.
I've got a good example as well. Lance Amstrong. Don't approve what he has done. But considering that there were so many others at that same time who took whatever they could, it wasn't that bad. And if he would have held all the money he won with cycling for himself then it would have been another story. He can live a comfortable life now; true. But if you know what he donated to AND DID FOR several good causes and especially the LAF. Thousends and thousends of people being cured from cancer thanks to all his initiatives. But people seem to forget that very fast.
Despite the stupid thing he did, to me he is still a HERO.
I can see that. You're really basing his 'hero' status in your eyes on the good he did with his talent. Even without any enhancers, the man has a great talent! In a competition there has to be rules, but I do not think breaking those rules should demonize the great things a person has done. Poor choice? Yes but that just means no competitions in my opinion.
I would still let people see how he has talent, how hard he worked to refine that talent, and the wonderful choices he made with his donations. :) Thanks for replying!
People I think are prone to forget that their heroes, and leaders are human, and what that means.
They do the same with villains.
It often leads to a "forever damned" or "forever flawless" image.
A false dichotomy.
I agree! Villians are a good example. Hitler cannot be talked about in a way that humanizes him, because people don't want to think "oh crap that could have been me".
Or the fact that despite the bad things he did, there were also things in his life that people considered good. He was a human.
I also find it amazing they focus on him when both Stalin and Mao were responsible for the deaths of far more of their own people than Hitler was his.
All three were very bad things. Yet Hitler is the only one people push as being bad and evil.
See, Stalin and Mao are not considered good from what I can tell; however, they are DEFINITELY down played. When people "scale" evil, Hitler is the top and it baffles me. Clearly they have not seen the evil things intentionally committed on others. I think a big part of that were the death camps. Stalin used things like country starvation which did not get nearly the same press. I've seen ONE documentary on the Holodomor genocide.
Granted, the other men's behaviors should not downplay the cruelty and evil that occurred in camps and ghetto's. What I would like to see is people realizing that Hitler should not be the top of an evil scale if you truly look, you can find plenty of others who did worse and more direct. Hitler should not be glorified either. Just as a general conversation, I'd like to see more knowledge on the depths of depravity humans have inflicted on other humans. Hope that makes sense!
Beautiful photography
Thank you! Really it was the right time and place. I sat at the desk and saw my dog being silly. Stood and took a picture. Lighting was great already, so very little on my part was needed. ^_^